Last week I started on the topic of cats who were over saturating blogs and the market with just a little too much low-effort face time and well, when talking about that type of dude one definitely has to reference Charles Hamilton.

Now I know months back I gave this guy my endorsement, and as an emcee, I still do. However, that being said, homie releases a lot of motionless tunes that just start and end nowhere. And I don’t care how much material you record and how much time you spend sharpening your skills…practicing in public is lame and due to this fact, I haven’t posted anything C-Ham related in quite some time…until now.

MC LYTE! Need I say more?? Word on the street is these 2 NY reps’ll be putting out an EP together, tentatively titled ‘Fluorescent’ and if that’s true…hats off to Sonic for havin some taste and respect. Now if 50 will only give Milk the cheque he deserves for ‘I Got Money’, we’ll be one step closer to goodness. Anyway, check the chunage.

Also involved with that rant last week was the almighty Wu chef, Raekwon.

Yes, I still stand by my statement, and yes, I’m not as excited as I once was about OB4CL2, but gosh darn if this doesn’t get me a little amped. 3 dudes that you just don’t wanna beef with…check the gravy.

Generally I don’t post a lot of videos up because a) Nothing really caught my eye or b) The CAPtain got it. But for some reason, the past few days there’ve been a lot of new videos dropping with dope tracks and I figured, let’s break’em all out in one special ting ting.

Wherever you are…whether at home, at work or on vacation…here’s some visual content to ease the passing of time.

Truck North – Never Ending Flip

I posted this track earlier this week, and whaddya know, Video! Allow him to re-introduce himself….

Jake One – Home Feat. Vitamin D, Note, Maneak B and Ish

From Jake One’s ‘White Van Music’. Easily one of my favorite songs off the record featuring 4 Seattle cats that you probably’ve never heard of. This is posse cut goodness.

Prodigy – Mac 10 Handle

I’ve never really been a Mobb Deep fan. Call me a skeptic, but I generally don’t believe homocidal tales from cats who stand 4 foot nothing and are constantly getting robbed and clowned. However, despite all that, they always seem to have a minimum of 1 song an album that makes you forget all that and just embodies the definition of ‘Gully’. Well CAPtain…some more ‘Gully’esque vibes for your soul.

and finally…

Beastie Boys & The Roots – So Whatcha Want

Are they old? Yes. Is this visually exciting? Not so much. Does it sound dope? Yessir.

The Roots helping the Beastie Beastie Boys get live on the spot. Classic song by classic people.

Some of you might know of my unwavering love for Golden Era hiphop (88-94). Those are the greatest years for hiphop, hands down. I’ll fight ANYONE who wants to dispute this! Shout me out and let me know a time and a place, and knuckle up cause I’m going for your grill.

All ranting aside, the reason me and Triple get along so well, is not because he grew up in that era, but because he was taken to hiphop school by a good friend of mine J$Money. Every Saturday Money would school a young upstart named Triple about all the best artists that came out of this era of music. I think Money should actually open a school. Maybe HHHT should start a hip hop buxiban in Taipei. Cous cous you down? 2 Handed one?

Anyways one of those great golden era artists is this man, Antonio Hardy aka Big Daddy Kane. The original smooth operator on the microphone.

When other artists were wearing sneakers and track suits, this man was on some playalistic type ish, wearing suits and hats, with the high top fade and 3 cuts in the eyebrows. Mad style. Let me tell you something, this was one of my hiphop heroes from this era. Yes, I had a high top fade. No I didn’t have 3 cuts in my eyebrows. Yes, I know he fell off on the third album. No, my respect for the raps hasn’t faded.

So HHHTers, here is my little nugget of wisdom to contribute to your schooling. This is recommeded viewing.

…will get you no where. Whoever said that wasn’t a rapper. Apparently, when you’re a rapper, you can say things like ‘I wish I could f*ck every girl in the world’ and girls will sing along. I’m amazed.

I often talk about Weezy and Drake on this blog. They’re a pretty lethal one-two punch right now. Young Money is the crew that Weezy put together and this is their ode to the fairer sex.

The 4 day weekend starts tomorrow. Fellas watch the video and be inspired. Ladies….its the thought that counts…right?

Like the CAPtain had previously reported, inspiration has been a rarity these past few months. And well, it’s tough to keep the string of goodies comin when the pickings’ve been so slim. Y’know, sure there’ve been good tunes here and there, but nothing that made me lose my poop like that Kurupt/Quik tune. That was definitely poop worthy.

Some of my favorite groups of the past few years have either disappeared or dropped sub-par efforts **cough cough** Foreign Exchange **cough cough** and people who I generally would be excited to hear have taken the whole ‘mixtape – let’s jump on every feature known to man like Weezy’ concept and oversaturated themselves to the point where I don’t really feel to support them financially the way I once would (I’m lookin at you Busta and Raekwon). With that being said, had it not been for the oversaturation of some of these guys, I probably would’ve posted only a half of what I have. So I guess I owe them a….thanks??

Anyway….I found some things that are cool and perhaps you will too.

Miike Snow.

3 guys, not 1. That’s pretty much all I know about them. They’ve done their Daft Punk best to stay anonymous and have done a pretty decent job thus far. All I’ve been able to gather is they produce some pretty sophisticated pop and the lead singer sounds a touch like Peter Gabriel (listen to how he bends his words) and that automatically earns them awesome points in my book.

I first heard of this dude when he showed up on the first (and only) Okayplayer compilation: True Notes some years back and thought, this guys alright. Since then, he’s shown up on pretty much every Roots album and has consistently improved and grown as an emcee and a writer. Well, I guess Truck’s now prepping for a big ol’ solo cause his name’s startin to make the blog rounds.

Finally, as a response to the homie’s post yesterday, this goes out to CAP, 2Hands and the entire PPF fam….a tune that was off the NBA 2K6 soundtrack (which was an incredible soundtrack btw but barely got any love).

I’m a fan of gullyness.
Gullyness could be described as a certain toughness.
Do you remember the Hieroglyphics crew?
Souls of Mischief, Casual, Del the Funkee Homosapien. They were great lyricists, but not too gully, except for Casual.

Not sure if this is called ‘I get in’ or ‘Pretty Please’ either way, watch this.

To say its been a minute would be an understatement. I’ve been selfish these last few weeks, not sharing any goodies with the HHHT squad. To tell you the truth, I’ve been SERIOUSLY uninspired by music that is coming out and music that is being played out in clubs. If you want to know what I’ve been listening to, its been Drake’s ‘So Far Gone’ Mixtape/LP and soul music. That’s been my inspiration. So Far Gone is a couple months old but it still hits like the freshest shit my ears have been blessed with. Great rhymes spit with style and the right touch of swag. And Soul music is just timeless and makes me smile. Nothing better than listening to some good soul tunes on a chill day.

I know I haven’t been up on the blog for a bit. My homey Triple has been holding it down like Bundy with the 5 count. Good looks and salutes from across the pond thun. PPF I see you. HHHT’ers lets inject some anarchy into a lifeless system. I’m open to suggestions.

On to joints.

I love this pic because Michael looks like the one with the most swagger, next to the Big Dog Joe in the back of course. A leg up and a little attitude. Who knew then, that kid would turn into a fucking weirdo??

Its Great To Be Here – Jackson 5 (click pic)

Next up my homey, the Reverend Al Green. This guy had amazing hair and an amazing voice to go with it. Fans of hiphop should recognize the opening drums.

Al Green – Im So Glad Your Mine (click pic)

This one is dedicated to Triple for all his hard work these past couple weeks. Tim Hortons thun! (Inside joke for my Canadians)

This last one is for the ladies. There’s a big surprise in the middle of this one. (I bet you thought it was all Alicia.wink)

And while I won’t contest that the man is magnificent, his solo joints after his divorce from the First black President, Eric B. were underwhelming to say the least (even though 18th Letter was well received, I still think it’s predominantly phoned-in).

That being said, both 1997’s18th Letter and 1999’sThe Master had some dope joints on’em and well, being ‘No Country For Old Heads’ Thursday, I came across this rare remix of the 18th Letter‘s first single,‘Guess Who’s Back’ by D.I.T.C. in-house producer, Buckwild (who you also might know from his work with Kool G Rap — Fast Life, Organized Konfusion – Stress, Black Rob — Whoa!).

But before you get that….here’s a link to the original done by one of the most underrated contributors to the genre, Mr, ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’, Mr. ‘Get Money’, Dana Dane’s backbone, Clark Kent. (PLUS one of the most bizarre videos I’ve ever seen. Rakim getting his Salvador Dali on??)

Generally on Sundays, the crew and I give you the option of Heaven or Hell (or neither, depending on the preceding night). And well, normally I’m cool with those guidelines…however, where I’m at, we’re gettin Monday off so Sunday will continue BANGIN (more on that in a minute) so I’m leanin towards the hellish side of this post. Nonetheless, I can’t be insensitive to my overseas counterparts who are currently dealing with a serious dose of Adventure from the Grandmaster himself.

So, here we go….somethin for column A and somethin for column B.

Heaven: For those that need to just chill the eff out with some cool ish.

As many of you know, Pete Rock and Ma Dukes have gotten together to release Dilla‘s first official (I don’t count the Illa J ish) Posthumous record. With enough in his vault to battle 2Pac, I really hope that this isn’t the beginning of a long watering down process. Already on the record, titled JAY STAY PAID, there are features that I’m just not comfortable with (Havoc of Mobb Deep?!? I say NO DICE good sir.), but that being said, there are some features on here that just look amazing (Blu, Lil Fame, Black Thought). So with that, I give you a preview of the record courtesy the World Famous Beat Junkies & Okayplayer.

As we’ve been reporting for awhile, Freebass 808 is the ridiculous union of producer Apple Juice kid and Camp Lo’s Geechi Suede. They’re dope. Now, with what they’re calling an ‘Interactive Player’, these boys along with Tishaun Dawson of Battalion Armour are here to take things one step further. 5 New Freebass 808 tunes accompanied by full conceptual visuals…this is the future and I’m excited.

‘They say they ride for the underground, die for the underground but still makin no moneeeeeeey…..stupid’. – Dave/Dove/Trugoy

HHHTruthful,

Today I give you a post that counteracts the above statement by the great Plug Two. Cats who maintain the ‘underground’ label and have established or are slowly building their pensions with verbs, nouns, hooks and cadences.

Tanya Morgan

These cats are dope. From Brooklyn and Cincinnati respectfully, these cats do fun rap without having to talk about ‘Bringin’ it back’. Making their first big splash on Foreign Exchange‘s incredible debut ‘Connected’, Von Pea, Donwill and Illyas have quietly worked their way into the circuit and share a similar lane with Little Brother (circa the Listening). However, like Little Brother minus 9th…they also have issues consistantly picking dope beats. This one however is a gooder.

Sure he’s had major label support, and sure he’s been on commercially successful singles, but dammit if Kurupt doesn’t embody ‘RAW’ through and through. A rapper’s rapper, he’s been doing this for roughly 16 years and has never wavered from his position to sell records. With an amazing knack for creative and unorthodox cadences, what he lacks in content he always makes up with in flow.

Zev Love X. Don’t think I really need to write too much about this guy. He does his thing and people follow. Unfortunately he occasionally abuses this (google: Doomposter) but that doesn’t stop the fact that he’s plenty entertaining.